In times like the pandemic, when many people have to stay at home, it is necessary to work from home to earn money. But how to start your day? And how to be productive working from home?
How to start your day?
Starting your day right can decide how you feel and how much you can focus on your work. It is why it is necessary to create a regular morning routine. This will help you to reduce your mental energy so you can be more productive in your work.
The best you can do if you wake up is to stay awake right when the alarm goes off. Every time you sleep in, limit yourself to do an activity; you love 5 minutes lesser. This rule can help you to rise straight away.
What also can benefit your sleep is if you go to bed smiling. It means before you turn off the lights, spend some time doing something like watching a series or reading a book.
The first you need to do is relax and stay calm you can do this by meditating, for example. It can have a big positive impact on your day. To try meditation, you don´t need to be an expert. Start by finding something comfortable to sit in. Then close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing for around five minutes. There are many meditation apps like Headspace that provide guided meditation to instruct you further if you want.
What can also help you to avoid falling back to sleep is to do some activity. For instance, you can incorporate yoga or stretching into your meditation routine. It doesn´t have to be complex stretches like touching your toes and gently tilting your head towards your shoulder. This can calm your mind while loosening your body. Also, do it in a setting where you feel comfortable.
There is no single path to start calm and relaxed you have to be open and experiment with methods and find what works best for you.
Try journaling, where you write down what you want to do, what you appreciate, and what you´re afraid to do. It will help you to handle your own needs and desires.
What also helps your day is to write down a to-do list for the day and challenge yourself to accomplish each task.
The movement will get your blood flowing and boost your brain activity. No matter if you do a workout or go for a run, any bit of activity can stimulate your mind and prepare your body for the day.
Find something where you can smile and laugh; this will help you to start the day more positively.
Lastly, to have a more meaningful morning, you need to discover your passion; it will help to gain deeper motivation. It can be anything that you love doing and makes you feel excited and full of enthusiasm.
How to be productive working from home?
It is comfortable to work at home as there is often nobody that can monitor your work. But the problem is you can get distracted when you don´t focus on your tasks and plan them.
Before you start, it is important to figure out when and where you work in your place. A good idea is to use a quite separate room in your place if you can. So you can separate your work from your free time activities.
1. Plan what you need
If you work for a company at home, you need to know what rules you have to consider. Do you need any passcodes and instructions to do remote login, and is a VPN required, and what other software and tools do you need?
This is also necessary if you want to build your own business; you need to find out what equipment and software you require. Make sure to test and work out any problems you encounter.
2. Work Regular Hours
Schedule your time and stick to your plan. It is important to have clear guidelines when you work and when you call it a day.
What also helps is to write a to-do list no matter if you work in a team or alone, you can use Trello to schedule your tasks and communicate with other team members. Make sure to do the critical task first and be specific when writing your to-do list
3. Set Ground Rules for distractions
When you work at home, there may be live other people in your space that can easily distract you. So make sure to let them know when you need quiet time and no distractions for your work.
Another thing that can distract you is your phone, social media, and a website you don´t need for your work. What you can do is to use a different browser or create a new user for your work and private time so you can focus on your tasks.
4. Schedule Breaks and take breaks
Know when you can take a break, if there are any company policies, or can take your off time when you want to. A good rule is to take a 5-minute break when you have done a longer task or worked for an hour. And of course, have lunchtime of 60 minutes. You can set your own rules, but it is important to stick to your break times.
5. Socialize
When you are isolated, you can feel lonely pretty easily, especially for extroverts. This is why it is a good idea to chat and talk with other people at your place in your free time. You can also message or call a Friend or colleagues in your free time to maintain good relationships. It will help you to build a strong network with people if you want to.
You can also have weekly meetings with someone where you control each other, which task, and to-dos, you have archived in the week.
6. Communicate when you need to
If you work with other people, it is necessary to show up at video conferences and other meetings. So you know what tasks need to be done and what other employees work on, and how they can help you. Make sure to tell everyone when you are available for communication and repeat, so everybody remembers it.
Email and chat can also distract from your main task, so don´t check every time you get a new message, and don´t use Notifications if you don´t need to. Set a time when you look into emails and chats so it won´t distract you from your other work.
7. Have a separate work phone number
Use a phone number for work where colleagues and clients can call and message you. You don´t even need a second phone or Simcard; you can use VoIP, such as Google Voice, for example. It will separate your work from your private life.
8. Learn new skills and training
Look for new training and courses to improve your skills and professional development. This will help to find new ways to work faster and be more productive so you can have more free time. Also, new tools can help you automate things to make your job easier.
9. Be positive
No matter what you work on, there is always something you don´t like doing. So the best you can do is to make these tasks and other important ones first in the day because you get the feeling you accomplished something when you have done these tasks first. It helps you stay motivated and positive for the day, and your work gets easier. Don´t be that hard on yourself when you distract yourself; try to bring back your focus and set rules for yourself.
10. Reward yourself
Probably the most important one is to reward yourself after you have done your work for the day. This can be any activity, like watching your favorite Tv show or walking with your dog. It has to be something that marks the end of your work hours.
Tips to have a healthy work-life balance
With a good morning routine, you can get confident and prepared to take on any challenge. Start the morning with meditation and a little bit of exercise, and pursue a passion that excites you to make yourself look forward to your early hours.
Make sure you stick to your work schedule and have breaks. It is often the case that when your office is near reach, it can be pretty hard just to stop your work when you have already made enough on a day. But it is important to have a time when you stop working so you don´t overwork yourself because this can be really bad for your health both body-wise as well as mentally.
What is also important when you are ill is to take sick days because you won´t be productive when you are not feeling well. And if you don´t let your body rest, it can get worse over time, and this will not help you.
It takes planning and self-discipline, but when you focus on your work and make sure to have enough free time, you can maintain a healthy work-life balance.
How can you make money when your job isn´t an office job?
If the company provides you with the tools and software you need and you can work remotely, you are good to go. However, when this isn´t possible, you may have to find another way to earn money.
But if you want to create an income from home, you have to think about the possibility of building your own online business. No matter where your expertise lies, there are enough online business ideas you can earn the cash you need.
How successful you can become depends on how much time you are willing to invest and what type of online business you want to create.
Of course, you can also use your time to improve your skills and learn something new.
